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Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Tara Browne, so the story goes, and as you are no doubt aware, was the man who blew his etc. out in a etc. This slice o' milieu has just popped up on YouTube, and a remarkable little film it is too. Browne, looking uncannily like Peter Cook, buys "threads", attends clubs and "swings", hangs out at Robert Fraser's gallery whilst "birds" of a "dolly" persuasion examine art, chucks Beatles and Dylan albums around like the disposable commodities they once were (Oi! That's a hundred pound "piece" you muppet!)...and so it goes on. This was very much the world les Fabs moved in at that time, and you half expect one or other of them to suddenly appear. Tara is also seen driving the car that killed him, and the whole thing, topped off by a close-up of the doomed youth, has an undeniable sense of impending etc., much like the song his demise is said to have inspired.Many thanks to Julian Carr for sniffin' this oot.

Interesting little slice of time. I always wondered what the working (middle really) class Lennon saw in someone who was his era's equivalent of Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. If they were so matey surely Lennon would have heard about his death sooner, rather than reading about it in the paper one day? I think the "friend of Lennon" idea is a bit exaggerated.

Fab sequence. Too bad I don't understand French.BTW, the young man in sunglasses looking at the record in the screenshot above looks so much like Paul until his eyewear comes off. Check out those eyebrows and the mouth. Dead ringer.

I believe the article Lennon drew inspiration from for “A Day in the Life” concerned the inquest into Browne’s accident, not the announcement of his death, which had occurred almost exactly one month earlier.

Quite how well Lennon knew Browne is anyone’s guess, but he was a well-known “face” in Swinging London and Paul was certainly acquainted with him.

It therefore seems inconceivable that Lennon wouldn’t have heard about Browne’s death soon after the event, especially when you consider how much time he was spending with McCartney and in London during the writing & recording of Sgt. Pepper.

I couldn't imagine this incident going unmentioned around the rather close-nit London network of clubs and "friends" that we see in this film.

An incredible find! For people who don't understand French, fear not - he doesn't say anything revelatory. I agree, that is surely Spencer Davis spinning the platters with him. Though Gary Farr (and, presumably, the T-Bones) is the act he is supposedly watching at the Marquee, another band are in fact performing (their support, presumably). Anyone have an idea who they are? Also, has the Beatles music been added by the uploader? I wonder. Finally, there's a rare interview with Browne (all about how swinging it is to be a rich toff in London) in the second issue of the British version of Penthouse, from late 1965. I've been trying to pin it down. One day...

A thread on a Rolling Stones message board is speculating that the band at the Marquee is the Graham Bell Trend, who apparently supported Gary Farr and The T-Bones at the Marquee on Friday 4th October 1966: http://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1532978

It does look a little like Peter Blake in the centre of the wide shot of the gallery at 1.41. Could the girl being passed the artwork be Jann Haworth then?

As well as Friday 14th October, the Graham Bell Trend supported Farr at the Marquee on Friday 22nd July. I think this clip must date from July, as the outdoor footage has a summery look to it. Incidentally, at the end Tara says he votes Conservative because he's rich, but would vote Labour if he were poor. He and John must have had some fascinating ideological exchanges.

The portrait of Robert Fraser - partly shown in the clip at 1.16 - is featured on page 99 of the Fraser biography ('Groovy Bob' by Harriet Vyner), with the title 'OK Robert, OK Negro' by Larry Rivers. The same book states, 'in September 1966, for five days only, (Fraser) had the gallery window taken out and a psychedelically painted brand-new AC Cobra sports car exhibited in its place'.